What Can We Do Today? Go Ride a Bike!

Posted on June 1, 2008

Despite today being the first official day of winter here the sun was shining gloriously and it was not actually very cold. When the Twinadoes asked ‘What can we do today??’ this morning my first thought was to get outside and enjoy it while we can! So bike riding it was!

Ok so the girls were the only ones on bikes. I do have a bike and I can ride it, but no bike seat for Muski, so the Twinadoes rode their ‘training wheels’ bikes and I walked with Muski on my back. That way we all got a bit of a work out and I could keep the Twindaoes in line a bit easier!

The plan was to ride to the end of our street.

Previously the girls have been allowed to ride up and down the drive way (remember we live rural so we have a looooooong driveway) and sometimes we’d also go the extra 100 metres to the dead end bit of our street to talk to the cows. In the past I’ve usually had to help Izzy get back up the drive on her bike… she’d give up on the return journey and just refuse to pedal, so the idea of having to push her any further had stopped me from suggesting any longer trips.

Our recent trip traffic school with kinder had boosted both girls confidence on the bikes and they are currently obsessed with road rules and all things road safety so with the sun shining and me in a good mood, today was the day for a longer ride!

The trip from our front door to the end of the street is about a kilometre, the frist bit on the dirt driveway, the rest on a very bumpy made road. I loaded Muski into the back pack, snapped on helmets and grabbed a lump of rope (just in case anyone needed a tow when they gave up pedalling). The girls briefed me on the road rules before we left –

“You have to drive on the left all the time.” – not that they have any idea of their left and right!
“You have to stop for red lights” – there isn’t a traffic light in town let alone out where we live!
“…and watch out for zebra crossings…”
“… and make sure you look both ways….”
“… and take an adult so you don’t get run over… mum… are you an adult?”

After assuring them I was in fact an adult (they took a little convincing) and adding a few ‘rules’ of my own we were off.

We checked out everyone’s letter boxes. We found lots of numbers in various places. We said hello to the sheep up the road. We waved as we waited on the side of the road for our neighbour to drive past. We negotiated pot holes and almost always remembered to keep left. We kept an eye out for zebras crossing but only saw a few magpies. We marvelled at the greatness that was Muski keeping his hat on. We made it all the way to the end of our street…. and back!

All in all it was a really great way to spend the morning, everyone out and about in the fresh air doing something active – well except or Muski, the lucky bugger got a free ride!

So what did you do today? Got any fabo ideas of things to do with the kids? Feel free to post about your ideas on your blog, leave a link in your comments and I’ll add it to the end of this post :)

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Deesays

Oh that sounds wonderful!
Might have to do that tomorrow providing its sunny.
Pity we have no sheep to say hello to but we do have a lovely park with a bike path through it! Probably not a km long though ..